Miracle baby

It’s hard to imagine that this lively girl was once so close to death

Baby Fatma was not expected to live.

The 3-year-old was very sick and in a coma when her father, Khalid Ibrahim, carried her into Singapore last year. Her doctors had said she would not make it, and even warned him against making the trip.

But Mr Khalid was determined to give his daughter, who had a metastatic Wilm’s tumour – a type of kidney cancer seen sometimes in children – a chance, no matter how small.

“When I called Singapore and asked for treatment, there was a glimmer of hope,” he said of his first trip.

Fatma was put through surgery as well as chemotherapy – a bold decision that Dr Ang Peng Tiam suggested that her parents take.

The treatment proved successful, but the family had to walk through the darkest period before dawn. Fatma bled every day, as the tumour shrank, and her parents could only weep and watch as they saw her suffer.

It was a very different Fatma, however, that walked into his room recently for her follow-up review.

The chemotherapy and surgery had worked, and there was no evidence of cancer found in her PET-CT scan. “Baby Fatma is no longer a baby!” exclaims a delighted Dr Ang.”She’s a young girl.”

At first, the doctor found Fatma a little shy. “She was clinging on to her mum when she came into my consultation room,” he recalls.

But, he adds, the liveliness that Fatma had displayed even when she was very sick, soon came back.

“While I was talking to her parents about how she was doing back home, she warmed up and started exploring the room and raided my fridge. She reverted to her playful self with a cheeky grin. Chocolates and sweets remain her favourite.”

Fatma’s miracle comes as a source of hope and joy for Dr Ang. Not only does it bring him much delight to see the girl doing so well, it also brings him hope that more children like her can be similarly healed of the dreaded disease.

“Children are very resilient,” he says. “Despite advanced cancer and her poor general condition when she arrived in Singapore, she tolerated the intensive chemotherapy remarkably well.”

He also credits Fatma’s parents for their persistence in trying to fi nd a way for their daughter, instead of giving up, despite what they were told.

“Some parents – and doctors – may have considered ‘letting go’ to allow nature to run its course. I am glad that we chose to give her a chance and go all out to try and beat the cancer,” he adds.

“Truly, where there is life, there is hope!”